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Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

chargerlab.com

191–200 of 226 posts

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP is in the UK where every circuit has a GFCI, making it pretty much impossible to get an electrical shock due to isolation failure (in a typical year, not a single person dies from electrocution in UK homes). Fire is more of a concern, but this is indeed internally fused and the IC has both overcurrent and overheat protection - both of which are effectively 'free', so there are no cost savings to not include them.

Gotcha, there are still locations where non-GFCI receptacles are allowed in residential homes in the US, they’re required in basements, garages, exteriors, and within a certain distance of a sink/plumbing tap but not in bedrooms or general ‘living space’. AFCIs are required in most areas but don’t protect against ground faults, which aren’t as concerning with a device that is injection molded plastic anyways. The tri…

In the last 4 years china has really cracked down on dangerous products, so anything newly made will generally have at least the basics of protections. For example all products with batteries have over and under voltage protection with a dedicated chip rather than some microcontroller hopefully stopping the charge at the right time as used to be done in 2018 to save a few cents.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#192

Hopefully Apple releases a UK version of this adapter soon. The design looks very similar to my beloved Apple UK 20W charger [1]. I’d buy a 40-60W version in a heartbeat! [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-20W-USB-C-Power-Adapter/dp/B0...

Don’t buy Apple products from Amazon. Especially power or cables. The counterfeiting is out of control, and they have no plans to fix it

Are you sure of that? For years now I think Amazon and Apple have an agreement where only Apple or Apple-approved third-party vendors can sell Apple products on Amazon?

https://9to5toys.com/2018/11/09/apple-and-amazon-deal-iphone... https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-pumps-up-its-amazon-l...

(I think there may be a few other top-tier brands who get this special treatment from Amazon.)

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#193
post #92
post #69

This teardown is great! At my work, we have an X-ray machine for PCB reverse engineering. On Fridays we throw in random stuff from around the office, and sometimes make videos about what we find inside. A few weeks ago we released an X-ray teardown of several other, older chargers. Very interesting to compare with these fancy new ones! https://youtu.be/4h4qabPsPfI

Would a CT scanner work better for your use case? (ignoring cost)

A high res 2D X-ray is preferable for a PCB, which is nearly a 2D rectangle itself.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#194

Hopefully Apple releases a UK version of this adapter soon. The design looks very similar to my beloved Apple UK 20W charger [1]. I’d buy a 40-60W version in a heartbeat! [1] https://www.amazon.co.uk/Apple-20W-USB-C-Power-Adapter/dp/B0...

Don’t buy Apple products from Amazon. Especially power or cables. The counterfeiting is out of control, and they have no plans to fix it

Anecdote: I’ve bought at least a dozen Apple accessories recently and it’s been fine.

Just don’t buy from random listings with vendors named TREGARBLE or something. Inspect it upon arrival and send it back if it’s a problem.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#195
Very cool to see more incredibly detailed and well photographed teardowns outside of Ifixit.

Wonder if they could compare this to GAN options from Anker or other competitors?

Still kind of annoyed how much my apple power adapter weighs, but I'm too cheap to really buy another one just so it weighs less haha.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#196
post #142

The best part I find about ChargerLab teardowns is identifying all the passive and discrete components. Western distributors tend to only stock western/japanese brands of these, but they can make up a sizable fraction of the BOM (especially electrolytic capacitors) so knowing who the big players are comfortable with using is very handy. LCSC stock a lot, but its nice to know which suppliers have been proven in use.

> but its nice to know which suppliers have been proven in use.

Watch out. Some of the suppliers you’ve never heard of are capable of delivering good parts to companies like Apple but still have ultra cheap parts available retail.

You can’t rely on brand names in this space.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha! I laughed at the "my left ear enjoyed it" comment. Note that the audio mix for the microphone fell in the left channel only. Apart from that, interesting images!

I'll let the right people know, thanks to you and the YouTube commenter! What a funny, positive way to point out our error.

The right and left people should probably work together in future ;)

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#198

UGreen and Anker has me already covered for these types of powerful but small chargers. They are not limited to one port like the Apple chargers are.

The one thing I like about the Apple charging bricks is how on certain models the prongs can be swapped out for a cable, which is very useful when the wall plug is cramped. However, this device doesn't seem to incorporate that so I'm not sure what benefit it has over an Anker.

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China makes a 50 watt PD version with 2 ports already. https://a.aliexpress.com/_EuPD4j8 It can deliver 50 watts entirely to 1 port, unlike most others where they mean 25 watts per port. $5.50 with free shipping.

Please do not save money by using unlisted electrical equipment. Spend the extra $20 for a product that is tested and listed by UL/CE/ETL, it’s not worth burning a building down over $20. You couldn’t pay me enough money to plug this into a building’s electrical distribution system, it’s drawing ~3A at 120V (60W at 5V plus inefficiency) and in a very small form factor, I sure hope the engineering and QA of that $5 ch…

Not seeing UL or ETL or FCC certification on those Apple A3365 chargers. Not finding Apple's own Declaration of Conformity for that product.[1]

Anyone know the switching frequency?

[1] https://regulatoryinfo.apple.com/en/eurocompliance

Re: Teardown of Apple 40W dynamic power adapter with 60W max

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don’t buy Apple products from Amazon. Especially power or cables. The counterfeiting is out of control, and they have no plans to fix it

Anecdote: I’ve bought at least a dozen Apple accessories recently and it’s been fine. Just don’t buy from random listings with vendors named TREGARBLE or something. Inspect it upon arrival and send it back if it’s a problem.

> I’ve bought at least a dozen Apple accessories recently and it’s been fine.

How did you verify their authenticity?

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